page_title: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Honiara
section_title: Cathedral
hierarchical_section_title: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Honiara / Cathedral
caption_attribution_description: English: Chancery Office, Honiara, Solomon Islands
context_page_description: The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Honiara is a Latin Rite Metropolitan Archdiocese in the Solomon Islands. It is the latter day successor of the Prefecture Apostolic of the English Solomon Islands, which was erected in 1897. The Province of Honiara was created in 1978, the first such creation of Pope John Paul II, and has two suffragan sees: Gizo and Auki.
  Holy Cross Cathedral, Honiara, on the island of Guadalcanal, is the seat of the Metropolitan See. It was dedicated on 17 September 1978 by then-Bishop Daniel Stuyvenberg SM.
  New York-born Archbishop Christopher Cardone OP was appointed on 22 June 2016 to replace Dubliner Archbishop Adrian Smith SM, who presented his resignation on reaching the age limit after some 32 years as Archbishop of Honiara.
context_section_description: Holy Cross Cathedral, Honiara, stands on the site where it is thought that the Spanish explorer Mendaña erected a cross when he arrived in 1568. Thus had the explorer given Honiara its first name, Santa Cruz. A large church intended to be used for episcopal ceremonial was erected at Visale in 1923, but it and the remains of the murdered Bishop Épalle which had been interred there were lost to earthquake in 1930. From that time Bishop Aubin based his operations at Tanagai.
  The American development of Honiara as an army base and war depot turned Honiara into the new capital for the British Solomon Islands. The Catholic population tripled between 1947 and 1957, from 1000 to 3000. The first Holy Cross Church, built in 1947, was replaced by a much larger structure in 1957. The statues of the Blessed Virgin and St Joseph, which had somehow survived the Japanese air raids of the Battle of Guadalcanal, were positioned outside the 1957 church. These statues were re-positioned once again outside the 1978 cathedral; damage caused by bullets can be easily seen on both.
  Bishop Daniel Stuyvenberg SM began planning for a new cathedral for the Diocese in 1975. He appointed Melbourne architect Noel McKernan, and laid the foundation stone on 14 September 1976 and solemnly dedicated it on 17 September 1978.
  McKernan's contemporary design is reminiscent of the tent-like structure which it replaced. A self-taught local woodcarver, Frank Haikiu, was engaged for the manufacture of the altar, tabernacle, crucifix, font, way of the cross, and statues of the Blessed Virgin and St Joseph. Haikiu also carved a Suffering Christ (now in St Joseph's Secondary School, Tenaru), an altar for the Marist community in Tanagai, and a Martyrdom of St Peter Chanel for Our Lady of Lourdes and St Peter Chanel Church in Hull UK.
caption: Chancery Office
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